Hillary > Recent Status Updates

“Nothing in her adult life went as planned, but somehow, she received the most beautiful gift in the midst of the chaos.” (Pg. 295)

“I observe him for a while, wondering whether it’s normal, feeling—feeling so much about a single person. Surely, it’s unfair. Surely, a love this deep should be reserved for the universe as a whole. But what if, to me, he’s the linchpin? What if he’s the stitch that keeps it all together?” (Pg. 390)

“The sallow, emaciated girl blinking at me in the changing room mirror is no one at all. Her dark hair hangs limply from a middle part, far too long. Her collarbones are sharper than knives. Her identity has been peeled off layer by layer.” (Pg. 142)

“I have no idea what will happen, I have no idea what has happened, and it’s terrifying. I respect Lowe, this man who feels so similar to me, this man I’ve known less than a handful of weeks and yet cannot quite make myself not trust. I respect him too much to lie to him, or to lie to myself in his presence.” (Pg. 235)

“The fact that this is Lowe. And his blood tastes like blood, yes, but it’s also spicy, coppery, a thrill on the back of my tongue. His blood tastes like his scent, and his smiles, and his hands lingering on my skin…His blood is everything that he is, and I’m drinking of it. It’s the most delicious, the most earth-shattering, the most inside-out moment of my entire life.” (Pg. 220)

“I think Lowe is simply too big a person to hold grudges. I think Lowe is too fucking principled for his own good, and doesn’t deserve to have his heart broken, or his life only half full.” (Pg. 203)

“I know that he’s worth so much more this he thinks he is. I will give him everything I have—my time and my devotion and my heart. And I know he’ll give it right back to me. Because I know Charlie. The incorrigible flirt. The human beam of sunlight. The Man I love. He’s my best friend. And he’s remarkable.” (Pg. 363)

“It feels like all the greatest kisses in one. Like kissing your high school crush, and the best friend you’ve fallen in love with, and the person you want to stand beside for as long as time will let you. It’s the starting gun and the finish line. It’s a surge of pleasure and satisfaction and rightness that reaches deep into my soul. (Pg. 358)

”The sun has sunk below the hillside, leaving the horizon streaked in blush and blue. And even though the site of Charlie on this picture-book evening is one I want to remember forever, I don’t itch for my camera. I’m in the moment, at the center of the action.” (Pg. 319)

“My heart feels too big for my chest, like it might crack right open. I’m smitten. I’m struck. I’m crushed by the totality of Charlie. This complicated, kind, infuriating man.” (Pg. 303)

“It’s not the summer I envisioned when we arrived in June—it’s so much better. I feel as though I’ve been wearing a heavy coat and am now finally able to take it off. I feel lighter.” (Pg. 172)

I think I love Charlie Florek.

“For a moment that seems to stretch for hours, he looks at me in that disconcerting way, like he can see not only into my soul but to a deeper place. A corner that’s full of secrets I haven’t learned yet. It makes me feel stripped to my essential parts.” (Pg. 107)

“A great photograph makes you think you know the subject, even if you’ve never met. A great photo reaches out and pulls you inside the moment, so you can feel, smell, and taste it. And this, by all accounts, is a great photo.” (Pg. 1)

“She couldn’t keep ignoring the pain eating away at her. It put her to bed and was waiting at the door when she woke up. It wasn’t working, walking around like she didn’t notice it following. She couldn’t outrun it. So it was time to face it. But having been in therapy for a few weeks now, it was grueling to sit there and examine it all. It felt like having open heart surgery without the anesthetic.”(350)

“He wasn’t surprised that she loved him — she expressed as much in a lot of big and small ways, which was why he never expected to hear it out loud. He liked when she surprised him.” (Pg. 299)

“Going forward, she would hold on to her pointless prayers about not falling in love with Jamie. She still didn’t want to, but she could feel it happening anyway. Now, she simply hoped, she prayed, that she wouldn’t disappoint him. That he wouldn’t disappoint her. That somehow, they would both simply make it out of this thing, whatever it was, whatever it turned out to be, unscathed.” (Pg. 209)

“The line went silent before she could even pretend she had a defense. Whatever damage she’d done to him was likely irrevocable. There’s not much you can say when someone wants you in hell.” (Pg. 100)

“He didn’t know what Eve’s plans were. He didn’t know whether she’d be receptive to spending even another minute in his company. But either way, it was nice to know that he wasn’t alone up here.” (Pg. 44)

Finally finished Fall Into Temptation by Lucy Score. Took me a month…

“This was love. This was life. They belonged to each other with an unbreakable bond forged of heartbeats and breath, of forgiveness and faith.” (Pg. 317)